Depraved Appetite. Stump Sucking. Pica. 79 



Faulty food operates in a similar manner. The exhausted 

 soils, and their products deficient in alkaline and earthy salts 

 have been already referred to ; we must also note the evil effect 

 of fibrous fodders, the main nutritive elements of which have 

 been washed out by intemperate weather after they were cut, the 

 rank aqueous products of wet or swampy soils, the fibrous and 

 siliceous plants (rushes, carex, equisetums, etc.) which grow on 

 poor, wet or soured soils, the innutritious and fermented products 

 of beet sugar factories, and generally the spoilt food which has 

 undergone fermentation. 



Yearly breeding and constant milking, by undermining the 

 general health, predisposes so strongly that in many cases the 

 affection is seen in dairy cows, while oxen and young cattle 

 escape. The last period of gestation when the demands for the 

 growing calf are greatest, is the period of especial danger. 



Permanent stabling which denies the invigorating influence of 

 sun, exercise and pure air contributes toward the general debility 

 and therefore, in animals that are closely stabled for the winter 

 the spring is especially to be feared, when compulsory inactivity, 

 poor feeding, gestation and milking have combined to reduce the 

 -system. 



Dry seasons have been noticed to increase the affection, mani- 

 festly by reducing the supply of food. 



Course. The affection is chronic and unless arrested by the 

 supervention of more favorable conditions, may last for a year or 

 more. Spontaneous recovery may set in when turned out to 

 pasturage and open air life, and especially if a rich grain feeding 

 is added. Without change in the conditions, however, the ten- 

 dency is to a fatal result. 



Lesions. The victims of the disorder are emaciated, the fatty 

 tissue contains a yellow serum, there is little blood, and that is 

 thin and watery and coagulates loosely, the muscles are pale and 

 flabby, and the gastro-intestinal mucous membrane is the seat of 

 ■catarrh. 



Treatment. To treat rationally and successfully we must adapt 

 the measures to the obvious causes. When the soil has been 

 scourged and exhausted, a change of pasture, and of land to be 

 used for hay or soiling crops is the first consideration. If these 

 •cannot be secured then grain and seeds rich in protein, and alka- 



